Chapter 9 First Rule of The Never List is…
First Rule of The Never List is…
After I shower, Allison showers. And when we both get to the room, she starts to look through my stuff. Wait, look is very tame. She starts to aggressively throw my clothes around like a tornado.
“Why are you going through my stuff?”
“Because you and I have to look good…” She says vaguely, and I cross my arms.
“And that wouldn’t have anything to do with West and Riden coming over, would it?”
She scoffs, an intense scoff, and indignantly looks at me.
“I am offended by your accusation. We dress for ourselves and for ourselves only.” Pause. “Boys are a bonus…” She tries to hold in her nasty grin, and I shake my head.
“I knew it…” At this point in her throwing fit, I just stare, waiting for clothes.
After a good ten minutes, she decides, and I quote For god’s sake, Mads, you don’t have anything good to wear!
Ouch. So she decided for me to wear some of her clothes.
I’m wearing a white loose shirt and some bootcut jeans.
She’s wearing a crop top with shorts. She then tosses me black boots with a hill.
“I’m not wearing these.”
“Oh, come on! Not everyone could pull them off besides me! And you!” She adds quickly.
Three outfit changes later and an almost fight over wearing a t-shirt or a top, we go downstairs, and boy, did we have nice timing. Everyone is already talking in the dining room, near the end of the stairs. Allison sure knows how to make a good entrance.
Everyone stops and stares. Then, the adults continue their conversation, but it seems that the young fellows have a nice time staring. I smirk.
“Keep that pretty mouth of yours open any longer, and you’ll catch flies, West.”
He gets out of La La Land and looks me up and down.
“Lookin’ good, Brown.” He says, trying to rescue him from any more embarrassment. I blush. Oh my god, stop it. “Who knew that if you tried, you could actually look decent…”
I scrunch my nose in disdain, and he winks, causing my cheeks to turn a darker shade of red, if it’s even possible.
“So cute, aren’t they?” Riden asks my best friend, amused.
“The cutest.” She mocks even more.
Those idiots never waste an opportunity to talk to each other and goof around.
Riden seems to be mesmerized by her every single time, ever since he first met her.
With her wavy blonde hair and eyes that seem to have the ocean in them, everything about her is perfect.
She is shorter than I am, but she isn’t exactly a short person.
She can attract any boy she wants. Sometimes by accident, and sometimes not so much by accident.
I always thought Riden and her would look good together.
“Why are you wearing heels?” Jake asks me. “Oh, how foolish of me. You obviously wanted to impress me.”
“Not even in your wildest dreams, West.” I sigh.
I can see that he’s about to retort, but my dad cuts in and informs, “Let’s eat.”
The table is set specifically so the adults would be on one end and we on the other.
I’m sitting between Alls and Lindsey, with Jake in front of me, Riden in front of Allison, and Alana in front of Lindsey.
The food is already sitting in front of us. Chops and rice. One of my favorite meals. I know it may appear simple, but it’s mouth-watering. When I’m served, I start to eat. The others are starting to eat when I get some more food.
“Mads!” Alisson whispers-yells.
“Wot?” I whisper back with my mouth full.
“Stop eating like a savage.”
I stare at her, frowning.
She eyes the boys and Alana, and I roll my eyes.
Riden and Jake are both staring, the first almost with his mouth wide open, surely not expecting this behavior from any human being — even though he practically lives in Jake’s house, he hasn’t seen me eating a lot — and the second sporting a pig smile — this one sees me every time.
I swallow the enormous amount of food in my mouth and say to the boys, rolling my eyes, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer. ”
They seemed surprised that I made a sarcastic comment instead of showing embarrassment.
Jake smirks.
“How charming, continuing to eat like an animal.” He says. “You’d expect she would have learned to fix it in over ten years.” He sighs, knowing how mad he’s driving me right now.
“I can be very charming, and you would know it if you really knew me, but you never bothered.”
We go a long way. From him using me as his prank guinea pig to always taunting me until exhaustion. But what I said is true, from all the dinners and times we’ve been together, we never really got interested in really knowing each other.
“I always tried!” He may be smirking, but his mouth is not showing what his eyes are. There’s a glint of hope and truth in his eyes. Those… Hazel eyes.
“I believe the sentence is Take a picture, it’ll last longer…” Allison quotes me.
“Staring are we? I mean, I know you dream about me daily.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I zoned out, and by chance, my gaze landed on you. And also, I only dream of you when you decide to come haunt my nightmares.”
“Ah, I see.”
I place another piece of meat and then add a bit of rice to my fork and put it in my mouth. Then, after chewing for a bit, turn to him.
“So why did you come early this summer?”
“My grandma was always complaining that we didn’t visit her enough, so I thought we could come earlier to spend more time with her. "
I smile. That’s actually really sweet.
“Has the world gone wild? Did I just see Madelaine Brown smiling? A genuine smile?” Jake mocks. “Caused by me? Oh, will definitely take a picture…”
“No, you won’t!”
I try to take it off his hands, and he dangles it in my face but out of reach, ready to snatch a photo.
“Jacob, no phones at the dinner table!” Emily raises her voice above our mess, and I smile triumphantly at him.
“Yeah, Jacob, no phones at the dinner table…” I whisper in front of his face now that the parents are distracted and talking again.
“Viper.”
“Pig.”
“Try-hard.”
“Walking red flag.”
“And you’re not catching any flags, are you?”
That was offensive.
“Menace to society is what you are and also-”
“OKAY, enough with the aggressive flirting because we have something important at hand.” Allison looks my way with a wicked grin, and I look at her with a worried expression.
She says things like this at least once a day, and it’s never important or a good idea.
“This summer, we have the never list to get over with.”
She outs me to the world, and my mouth drops open.
“Allison, don’t you dare speak about-”
“Our dear Maddie needs to get a life, so she showed me a list of things she would never ever do, and folks, we’re here to do them.”
I look down at my plate and completely ignore what happened.
Okay, I can’t ignore it.
“What’s the first rule about the never list?”
She stares at me blankly, and West points a finger at me.
“Never talk about the never list?” He references Fight Club, and my eyebrows raise.
“Surprisingly, yes, but it’s a never list for a reason.” Pause. “As in, I don’t want to do it, ever.”
“Blaspheme!”
I’m slightly surprised she knows how to use that word correctly.
“Boys, back me up.” She crosses her arms, and West and Riden are left slightly speechless. Still, of course, West manages to quip.
“And what is in that never list, if I may?”
“You may not.” I retort quickly, and his smile grows even bigger.
“Now I really wanna know.”
I roll my eyes, and Allison straightens up.
“If you’re not saying it, I will.”
And before I can stop her, she discreetly pulls up her phone and a picture of my list.
“When did you take that?!”
“Yoga, meditate, do anything before noon, babysit, sing in front of anyone, ask for a guy’s number…”
“Oh, wait.” Jake pulls out his phone, and I already know whatever it is he’s going to do is at my expense. “Here. The most valuable number you could ever get.” He smirks, joking and playing with me, and I lean back against my chair.
“Yeah, not really what I meant when I wrote that, besides the fact that I’m not entirely sure you’re even human, let alone a guy.”
“Oh, because of my superhuman good looks and god-like features?”
“No, because I’m convinced you’re half demon and half hellhound.”
“She’s feisty today.” He narrows his eyes at me. “As opposed to you, who’s half glitter, half cupcakes?”
Before I can respond, my phone starts ringing.
Oh, I forgot to turn off my alarm for my sleeping pills.
It’s late, and this alarm is from school days.
Your Love by The Outfield — my dad set my alarm, not me — starts to play, and my phone is currently on full volume.
I grab it and try to turn off the alarm, but my finger keeps missing the button.
Finally, I managed to turn it off. It seems that my alarm made my dad look at the time and say, “Excellent taste, Maddie,” Such a dad joke…
“Well, do you all wanna go to the cafe?”
We all nod and go outside, since we’re already finished. As we step outside, Jake says, “The Outfield?”
“How do you know that?”
“Opposed to what you might think, I’m cultured. It was one of my favorite songs as a kid. My parents forced me to listen to it until I liked it.”
“So, you like old rock?” I ask, kind of scared.
“You could say that it’s nostalgic.”
What a coincidence.
I don’t like this.
“Maddie thinks that way, too.” Allison cuts in.
“Really?”
“Why the tone of surprise?” I raise my eyebrows.
“I always saw you as the hopeless romantic who liked cheesy songs, and I guess I never saw you as the girl who likes the sometimes heavy sound of rock.”
It’s sad that we grew up together but never really knew each other that well.
“I love the sound of the electric guitar.”
Riden and Allison start giggling.
“What’s the matter with you two?”
“Wanna ask Jacob here, what instrument he plays?” Alls asks me.
I look at him.
“No way! You play the guitar?!”
“Yes, acoustic and electric. Impressive, isn’t it?”
“Well, I don’t know about impressive. I never heard you playing.” I can’t help but respond, not liking one bit how we’re coming closer together.
“You’re welcome in my bedroom any day.” He says, winking, and I blush. Again. Damn it.
He lowers his voice and whispers to my ear, “You always look cute when you blush.”
What the fuck?
* * *
I throw myself onto the bed, and Allison speaks up.
“This night was interesting!” She levels me with a knowing look.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on! He likes you!”
“Stop saying that! He does not! Plus, he’s going to get back with Amanda in one week, max.”
“Oh yeah? What was it that he whispered to you outside?”
“He said that I always looked cute when I blushed.” I say with indifference.
“ARE YOU KIDDING?”
“Shh! Everyone is probably sleeping!”
“Don’t hush me! That boy is fine and likes you.”
“He’s not that attractive.” I lie. Only a blind person would think that way.
“Of course not!” That’s a lot of sarcasm. “So all the times you were staring were because he had something on his face?”
“Oh, shut up.” I say, frowning. She laughs.
“You know I’m right, and you like him too.”
“DO NOT!”
“DO SO!”
“DO NOT.”
“DO SO.”
“Don’t…”
“Do…” She smirks.
“Besides, tomorrow I’m gonna meet Miss Patty’s grandson, and I’m sure that he is way better than West.”
“As if.”
“Hey, don’t do that. The boy plays guitar and reads. Can’t get more attractive than that.” I bite my lip.
“Jake plays the guitar.” Allison rolls her blue eyes and scoffs.
“But, he doesn’t read.” She puts her hands up in surrender. “Anyways, you and Riden…” This time, I send her a knowing look, wiggling my eyebrows.
“Oh yes. We’re already planning your and Jake’s wedding.”
“Tell me that’s not true.”
“What do you think we were talking about the whole dinner and outside when you were too busy scowling at him? And besides, Riden never liked Amanda.” She arches an eyebrow. I sigh.
“Good night, Allison.”
“Good night, Madiekins.”